one of my hobbies is researching ships that was built on the clyde.Queen Mary being the most famous one.There is a story i am trying to find out if there is any truth in it.when she was being named they discovered that there was an other boat named Queen mary, so they had to contact the owner of the little puffer to get them to change the name. The owner of the puffer refused, and held out for a great deal of cash. when he re named the puffer, it sank a year later with all hands lost. It is considered very bad luck to change the name of a ship.Do any of you know if this is true?

PF: The true story! - It wasn't a puffer! TS Queen Mary was a steamer launched in 1933 and worked on the Clyde. In 1935, Williamson-Buchanan, her owners, were contacted by the Cunard Company which was getting ready to have its new liner launched by Her Majesty Queen Mary – so Cunard reached agreement with Williamson-Buchanan that the turbine steamer would become TS Queen Mary II, and presented a portrait of Her Majesty to hang in the forward lounge of the Clyde steamer, while their liner became the RMS Queen Mary.Stories about changing ship names is a very old superstition that has no meaning at all. Modern ships change owners and names regularly. I owned many small boats and changed the names of most of them to suit myself.

All material in the site Glasgow Guide is copyright of the Glasgow Guide Organisation. This material is for your own private use only, and no part of the site may be reproduced, amended, modified, copied, or transmitted to third parties, by any means whatsoever without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. All rights reserved.